ETCHINGS Sheila Stafford's training as an illustrator involved various forms of printmaking, including stone lithography and screen-printing. As an etcher, she is largely self-taught. She uses both copper and zinc plates which are printed on a Rochat press. Sheila finds etching forms an ideal counterpoint to her earlier work as a book illustrator. She now concentrates mainly on etching, although painting forms an increasingly important aspect of her work. Her sources of inspiration are mainly landscape and the immediate environment of her house and garden, peopled with an assortment of found and made objects - driftwood and pebbles from the beach, favorite pieces of pottery, cats, and plants. Landscapes are often conflated from several drawings, expressing the artist's response to the genius loci rather than being specific topographical portraits. In 1998 Sheila moved to West Wales, where she and her husband are restoring a Victorian Mill House. The location in a tranquil wooded valley is a new source of inspiration. Sheila's work can be found in a number of galleries in the UK and at the David Barnett Gallery in Milwaukee. She has fulfilled commissions for such diverse clients as the BBC and London Contemporary Art.